Nine tips from real mums for fighting pregnancy insomnia
Pregnancy can bring a whole lot of changes to your life – insomnia being one of the less exciting parts!
If it makes you feel any better, it’s really common – apparently, between 60-90 percent of women have unsettled sleep during the nine months of making a baby.
Insomnia affects everyone differently
Some women have trouble getting to sleep. Others fall asleep easily only to wake wide-eyed around 3 or 4am and struggle to get back to sleep.
Regardless, it’s all pretty bad until you figure out how to deal with it.
I was afflicted with the 3-4am wake up in both my pregnancies. It started around the five-month mark and increased as the months ticked on … and as I got bigger.
To be honest, I found grinning and bearing it the only effective solution. Hmmm, but I wasn’t always good at that.
I can say that eating something right before bed, usually peanut butter and banana on toast, sort of helped. I tried my best to deal with it the next day by eating a lot too.
Yes, I guess for me, food is the common denominator.
Ha!
Read more about sleep:
- The snooze you lose: 8 ways to better sleep when you’re pregnant
- The real reason why ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ doesn’t work for mums
- Why babies wake at night – a sleep expert’s guide
Mix up a few methods to find what works for you
Here are some other suggestions from pregnant women who’ve been there, done that and survived.
1. Prop yourself up on pillows rather than lying flat on your back.
2. Tick something off your to-do list! That feeling of satisfaction can be enough to give your mind a bit of a rest.
3. Try meditation or a gentle yoga sequence. There are some terrific apps around, this one is particularly great.
4. Have a snack (make it protein-rich). Try cottage cheese on a cracker, a glass of milk, anything to boost those sleep hormones.
5. Write in your journal, just getting rid of your thoughts can help wind down your mind.
6. Read a great book (helps to quieten your mind and settle your body too).
7. Take a short walk around the block to get rid of any extra energy. A few stretches afterwards will ease your muscles into sleep too.
8. Experiment with an earlier bedtime – 15 minutes might be all your body needs to get the “unwind’ message.
9. Try a magnesium supplement. It’s believed that doing so can help to decrease anxiety and boost your levels of calm.
Fingers crossed one of these solutions will work for you – even if just for a couple of nights.
Oh, sleep, you beautiful, impossible thing.
